Robert Raczka

Storyboards take off on the fantastic and unreal imagery and narratives of movies and advertising, which are often outrageous yet strangely compelling. By cutting, collaging, and interweaving stories and pictures that overlap in complex ways, I am playfully engaging with the nature of representation, which is generally somewhat vague and open to interpretation.

A collage is created by carefully arranging as many as 6 pages to create a tableau. In the multi-page works, any text in the original magazine pages is cut out by hand (these are the white rectangles), the pages are drymounted, and movie synopses (written by myself based on researching movie guides and websites plus knowledge I might have of the film) are overlaid on the images. The image and text suggest related elements, though they contradict each other in ways, as well.

There are elements of random order (the cutouts are determined by the placement of the text in the magazine, not by my aesthetic decisions) and open-ended suggestions of meaning and narrative. My intention is to generate enough complexity and contradiction that these works take on a life of their own, exceeding but not disregarding the source material, while creating a space for the viewer's imaginative interpretation. My rational process is meant to generate enough complexity that it reveals the irrationality at its core. complex interaction between the image and the text, which in various ways support and contradict one another.

Storyboards (first series)

ink on magazine pages

Storyboards (2nd series)

ink on altered magazine pages